Despite fluctuations in the quality of input materials, end products are expected to meet high quality standards, especially in the food sector. The wide range of products available on the fast-paced global PET packaging market calls for a high degree of versatility on the part of plastics converters. For this reason, it is necessary to have lines which have a short process chain capable of producing good quality and which can respond rapidly to different requirements. 

Producing Sheet from Different  Input Materials 

Polyethylen

Polyethylenterephthalat

Extrusions-Zubehör

Blasfolienextrusion

Flachfolien- und Plattenextrusion

Kunststoff-Recycling

À la Carte Input 

Even though economical use of material is a perennial theme, the needs of plastics processors change with the requirements of the times. Recycling of post-consumer packaging is a great challenge at present. An Italian manufacturer has developed a two-stage system that can produce films suitable for food contact without intermediate pelletizing. We took a look around the company headquarters. 

Direct Recycling of PET Flakes into Food-Grade Film 

Extruder

Blaswerkzeuge

Verpackungsmaterial

Systems like a Symphony 

The increasing volume of plastic waste and the growing pollution of the oceans by such waste have brought the sustainable handling of plastic products into the focus of society and politics. Both recycling and bioplastics can be a part of a strategy for greater sustainability, but they are not free of side effects. In order to avoid irrational decisions, it is important to assess their effects comprehensively.

3D View of Sustainability

Logistik

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Flachfolienanlagen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Extrusionsanlagen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Extrusion

Nachhaltigkeit

Folien

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Folienblasanlagen

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Why Recycled Films Are Not Necessarily Sustainable

In 2013, Reifenhäuser introduced the high-performance extrusion lines for PET thermoforming sheets with the patented mechatronic polishing stacks of the MIREX-MT-V design series. Now Reifenhäuser introduces the next generation of this line type. 

Reifenhäuser Combines Improved Components 

Industrie 4.0

Extrusionswerkzeuge

New Generation of PET Thermoforming Sheet Lines 

The Danish company Plastix recycles old fishing nets and ropes. The granules produced are used by JSP International, among others, to manufacture expanded polypropylene (EPP).

Expanded Polypropylene from Maritime Plastic Waste

Schaumstoffe und Vorprodukte

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Schaumstoffe

Standardkunststoffe

Thermoplaste

Polypropylen-Compound

Polypropylen

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

From Fishing Net to Particle Foam

The Alpla Group is investing in an extrusion line for food-grade recycled PET (rPET) from used PET bottles at its Anagni site.15,000 tons of rPET are to be produced annually as a result.

Verpackungsmittel aus Kunststoffen

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Verpackungstechnik

Unternehmen

kunststoffe.de

Alpla Expediting a Bottle Cycle in Italy

Henkel significantly expands partnership with social enterprise Plastic Bank. The partners opened their first three plastic waste collection centers in Cairo

Kunststoffhandel

Dienstleistungen

Handel

Henkel and Plastic Bank Open First Collection Centers in Egypt

A machine manufacturer is expanding its wide program of cast and blown film lines with a system for water-quenched blown film extrusion. This provides a unique system portfolio for the production of flexible packaging. The article presents these extrusion processes, their specific characteristics and the resulting application areas. 

Kunststoff-Verpackungsmaschine

Medizintechnik

Film Production: System Options for Wafer-Thin Protection 

MDO (machine direction orientation) can be used for the production of polymer films that have unique properties. By using an optimized machine and control technology, existing MDO applications can be produced much more efficiently and new areas opened up. 

Selective Modification of Film Properties through Uniaxial Stretching 

Stretching the Limits  

With innovations in metrology, processing and automation, the film industry is again pursuing the goal of process optimization and digitalization this year. But efficiency and sustainability are also the focus of the machine manufacturers, who will be serving up pioneering innovations at K 2019.

The Circular Economy – Sustainable yet Efficient?

Folienabzug- und -aufwickelmaschinen

Faserverarbeitung

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Folienreckanlagen

A Perfect Concept All Round

Like plastics manufacturing and processing, the recycling of plastic products requires specialization to be efficient. Accordingly, a Dutch company has dedicated itself entirely to the recycling of agricultural and packaging films ¿ and invested in a machine technology, which was found along tortuous ways. 

Technical Answers to World Political Changes in Film Recycling 

Schmelzefilter

Sortierer

From Waste Collector to the  Plastic Recycler 

There is little doubt where we are heading: multilayer packaging will have to become easier to recycle – but what does that mean for the technology? And what solutions will the market need and accept? Manufacturers of branded goods are not the only ones who will have to rethink their specifications.

How Film Packaging Will Have to Develop

Klotz, Karlhorst, Dr.

Verpackungsanlagen

Coilhandling

Sondermaschinen

Europe Needs to Catch up

With the new ‘Investing in Better’ sustainability strategy, the company has set itself ten clear targets for long-term improvement.

Lohnfertigung

Klöckner Pentaplast Launches its New Sustainability Strategy

The Multipeel family from Südpack Verpackungen GmbH & Co KG, Ochsenhausen, Germany, has a new member: The crystal-clear top film Multipeel xPET can be securely sealed to all PET trays and films (CPET, APET) at temperatures starting at 145°C. An innovation in resealing films, it works perfectly with crystalline PET treated with anti-block or silicone. 

Crystal-Clear and Resealable 

Multipeel xPET Films 

The new German law on materials and the emerging EU circular economy law are not the only things behind changes in the branch: the plastics industry is becoming increasingly involved in the reuse of its materials as raw material. 

The Cycle Concept is Driving Integration and Networking 

Kunststoff-Regenerate

The Recycling Chain Is Linking Up 

Unique PET Tray-to-Tray Recycling in a Single Extrusion Step

The availability of PET bottle flake outside the beverage sector is expected to decline continuously in the coming years. Tray-to-tray recycling can close this gap and succeeds particularly easily with a new extruder.

The recycling of regrind from post-consumer PET trays to new sheet for PET trays presents challenges for the recycling process:

<ul><li>Unlike PET bottle flake, the intrinsic viscosity of the regrind from PET trays is too low to permit direct recycling on a conventional sheet extrusion line.</li><li>The sources of post-consumer PET trays is not as controlled as with PET bottle flake and there is a wide range of different types of trays in circulation, therefore the quality and property of the regrind varies considerably.</li><li>It is unavoidable, that tray regrind will be cross – contaminated with other polymers, as it is difficult to completely exclude other polymers, especially due to co-extruded or laminated layers.</li><li>For food contact applications, efficient decontamination of the polymer (e.g. EFSA, FDA) for monofilm structures is extremely important.</li><li>The material must be efficiently purified but at the same time, the processing should be as gentle as possible if the material is to be processed in a continuous closed loop and if the product quality is to be guaranteed.</li></ul>

Extruder with High Decontamination Capacity

For this demanding process of tray-to-tray recycling, Gneuss has developed the innovative MRSjump Extruder. The new MRSjump Extruder combines the high decontamination performance of the MRS degassing extruder, which has been well established over the past decades, with a viscosity boost:

<ul><li>The MRSjump extrusion process does not necessitate any pre- or post-treatment of the input material, such as crystallisation or pre-drying of the recycled material or an IV boost in a solid state polycondensation (SSP).</li><li>The high degassing efficiency of the MRSjump Extruder makes it possible to comply with EFSA and FDA limits without time- and cost-intensive upstream or downstream material treatment.</li><li>The simple set-up of the MRSjump direct extrusion process avoids the combination of different material treatments prior or subsequent to extrusion and resulting interface problems.</li><li>Thanks to the short process chain, the melt remains within a narrow, defined residence time spectrum. The thermal and mechanical stress on the material is kept low. This results in excellent mechanical and optical sheet properties.</li><li>The compact design of the MRSjump Extrusion System means that it has a small footprint and compared with other concepts available on the market, it can easily be retrofitted to an existing sheet line within the same spare requirements as an existing conventional extruder.</li><li>The MRSjump Extruder can processes a wide range of input materials, from regrind from mono- and multi-layer trays to material combinations which would stick together in a conventional thermal pre-treatment process (e.g. sheet regrind from PET/PE, GAG, certain copolymers).</li><li>In combination with the Gneuss Rotary Filtration Technology, a high melt purity is guaranteed.</li><li>Quality assurance is also provided by optional systems for measuring melt viscosity and optical properties (colour and transparency measurement).</li></ul>

With the innovative MRSjump Extruder Gneuss offers an optimum solution for post-consumer tray-to-tray recycling, which meets all requirements of completely circular modern food packaging.

Recycling and decontamination are for the first time made possible with the MRSjump Extruder, within one single extrusion step without upstream or downstream material treatment steps. This opens up new possibilities for the recycling of tray regrind.

Gneuß Kunststofftechnik GmbH 

https://www.gneuss.com

MRS extruder screw with multi-rotation section for efficient degassing and decontamination

16:9

Produkt Gneuß 24.11.2020

Tray-to-Tray Film Recycling Line with the MRSjump Extruder

In contrast to PET bottle flake, the origin of post-consumer PET trays is not so well controlled, which is why the quality and properties of the flake vary considerably

Polyester

issue 04/2021

issue 03/2021

issue 02/2021

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